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Papyrus (/ pəˈpaɪrəs / pə-PY-rəs) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge. [1] Papyrus (plural: papyri or papyruses[2]) can also refer to a document written on sheets of such material, joined side by side and ...
In Europe, papyrus co-existed with parchment for several hundred years until it largely disappeared by the 11th century. [6] [10] Papyrus was used in Egypt as early as the third millennium before Christ, and was made from the inner bark of the papyrus plant (Cyperus papyrus). The bark was split into pieces which were placed crosswise in several ...
Parchment. Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of young animals such as lambs and young calves.
A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyrus or parchment glued together at the edges. Scrolls may be marked divisions of a continuous roll of writing material. The scroll is usually unrolled so that one page is exposed at a time, for writing or reading, with the remaining pages rolled and stowed to ...
Though most early codices were made of papyrus, papyrus was fragile and supplied from Egypt, the only place where papyrus grew. The more durable parchment and vellum gained favor, despite the cost. [4] The Codex Mendoza, an Aztec codex from the early 16th century, showing the tribute obligations of particular towns
A scroll (from the Old French escroe or escroue) is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. [1] The history of scrolls dates back to ancient Egypt. In most ancient literate cultures scrolls were the earliest format for longer documents written in ink or paint on a flexible background, preceding bound books; [2] rigid media ...
The last grouping is based on content: lectionary. Most of the papyrus manuscripts and the lectionaries before the year 1000 are written in uncial script. There is some consistency in that the majority of the papyri are very early because parchment began to replace papyrus in the 4th century (although the latest papyri date to the 8th century).
Parchment or vellum, as the best type of parchment is known, had also replaced papyrus, which was not nearly so long lived and has survived to the present almost exclusively in the very dry climate of Egypt, [Note 1] although it was widely used across the Roman world. Parchment is made of animal skin, normally calf, sheep, or goat, but also ...